Note: This was the homily delivered by Fr. Go during the High 3 Batch Mass last 27 September 2007.

Have you ever prayed over a cup of coffee? That’s exactly what this person did. He is, of course, Martin Luther King, leader of the civil rights movement, known for great speeches and sermons.Perhaps his most famous speech would be “I have a dream.” He was only 26 years old when this minister was asked to lead the civil rights movement. At that time, some people said he “looked more like a boy than a man.”

As soon as his leadership was announced, he received death threats from the Ku Klux Klan, the hooded movement that advocated white supremacy and persecuted the blacks, lynching them and burning crosses. One night they called up Martin Luther King and said, “Nigger, we are tired of you and your mess now. And if you aren’t out of this town in three days, we’re going to blow your brains out, and blow up your house.”

Martin Luther King sat staring at his cup of coffee, thought of his family, and tried to find a convenient way out of his situation. He found himself praying before his cup of coffee. Whatever it was he had found in his prayer  that  night before that cup of coffee sustained him in all the years of his crusade.

What’s so special about the civil rights movement? It was a movement that fought for the equal rights of black Americans, including voting rights and the practice of segregating them from whites in public transport, public toilets, and public schools. We take all these for granted today, but the black Americans fought a long and hard battle. And their way of fighting was called “active nonviolence” inspired by Mahatma Gandhi. They fought actively, but always, nonviolently, following the words of our Lord to “turn the other cheek” whenever they were struck.

Easier said than done, especially if during your demonstrations, the police attacked you, hosed you, and clubbed you, then arrested you and threw you into jail. Remember this was long before People Power. What Martin Luther King and his followers were trying to do was to provoke a national response of moral outrage. Many historians point to one event as the single moment in which the movement attained at last a critical mass of support for the cause of civil rights.

Many Americans were watching the Sunday movie “Judgment at Nuremberg”—about the atrocities of Nazi Germany. The screening was interrupted by the breaking news. What did the viewers see? Martin Luther King and his group of black demonstrators were on a face-off with Alabama police. The mounted troopers galloped into the unarmed crowd of marchers, flailing away with their nightsticks, cracking heads and driving people to the ground. As predominantly white crowd on the sidelines cheered, the troopers shot tear gas into the panicked protestors. Needless to say, what the viewers saw broadcast from Alabama bore a horrifying resemblance to what they were watching about Nazi Germany.

That one event was the beginning of their victory—but they naturally had to pay a price. On April 4, 1968, Martin Luther King was assassinated at a hotel 2^nd floor balcony. You may be wondering: Why am I discussing Martin Luther King? Two reasons:

First, what’s going on in Myanmar today. Some of you may know that Myanmar has been ruled by a military junta since 1962. In 1988, pro-democracy demonstrations known as the 8888 Uprising. Hundreds of demonstrators massacred by security forces. For nearly a month now, thousands of Buddhist monks and nuns led students and the people in weeklong demonstrations to demand for democracy in Rangoon. Yesterday the inevitable happened—a clash between the military and the demonstrators. This account I pulled from the Internet gives us a chilling firsthand account of what happened.

By 12:30 p.m., hundreds of monks, students, and other Rangoon residents approached the police, stood in the road and began to pray. Then the soldiers and police began pulling monks from the crowd, targeting the leaders, striking both monks and ordinary people with canes. Several smoke bombs exploded and the riot police charged. The monks and others fought back with sticks and rocks. Many others ran, perhaps four or five of them bleeding from minor head wounds. A car was set alight — by the soldiers, some protesters claimed — and then there was the unmistakable crack of live ammunition: the soldiers were shooting into the air.

“They are not Buddhists,” cried one student, who clutched half a brick in his hand, running from the smoke. “They are not humans. We were praying peacefully and they beat us. They beat the monks, even the old ones.” An 80-year-old monk stood with the student, bleeding from a baton gash on his shaven head.

However, after this confrontation, the monks regrouped and surged forward again. Shops along the road were shuttered, but people threw down water bottles from their balconies to aide the protesters. Minutes later, the arc of a tear-gas canister looped through the air toward the pagoda’s east entrance…. Running monks retreated through the smoke,. They were shaking and incandescent with rage. “The United Nations must know about this!” cried one. “They beat the nuns too,” cried another. (quote from cnn.com)

Lots of things going on. We don’t know what will happen next. We pray for the people of Myanmar in what we hope will be a historic moment—especially for those courageous Buddhist monks and nuns, and the students and other demonstrators. We can’t help but wonder: Where do they get their courage?

We don’t know, but it must be from a similar source when we think about the courage of the saint we’re honoring today in anticipation of his feast tomorrow: San Lorenzo Ruiz.

He was an accidental martyr. He was a Chinese mestizo who fled to Japan because he had been falsely accused of murder. But he ended up getting arrested for being Christian and tortured, along with his companion Dominican priests. They were brought to Nagasaki on July 10, 1636. They were tortured through hanging by their feet, by submerging in water until near death, and by water torture. Needles were also pressed in between their fingernails and skin and they were beaten until unconscious. These methods brought some of Ruiz’s companions to recant their faith. But Ruiz never lost his courage or his faith.

On September 27, 1637, Ruiz and his companions were taken to the “Mountain of Martyrs”, where they were hung upside down into a pit. It was an excruciating way to die because they suffocated quickly while being crushed by his the weight. Two days after, Ruiz died from hemorrhage and suffocation.

His last words: “I am a Catholic and happy to die for God. If I have a thousand lives to offer, I will offer them to God.” Where did he and his companions, and other saints and martyrs, like the Buddhist monks and nuns in Myanmar, get their courage?

For this we go back to Martin Luther King praying before his cup of coffee. Many times in his life he returned to this one moment to draw strength from it. After getting that death threat over the phone, this is what he did, in his own words:

I sat at that table thinking about that little girl and thinking about the fact that she could be taken away from me any minute. And I started thinking about a dedicated, devoted, and loyal wife, who was over there asleep…. And I go to the point that I couldn’t take it anymore. I was weak…

And I discovered then that religion had to become real to me, and I had to know God for myself. And I bowed down over that cup of coffee. I never will forget it…. I prayed a prayer, and I prayed out loud that night. I said, “Lord, I’m down here trying to do what’s right. I think I’m right. I think the cause that we represent is right. But Lord, I must confess that I’m weak now. I’m faltering. I’m losing my courage.

And it seemed at that moment that I could hear an inner voice saying to me, ‘Martin Luther, stand up for righteousness. Stand up for justice. Stand up for truth. And I will be with you, even until the end of the world.’ I heard the voice of Jesus saying still to fight on. He promised never to leave me, never to leave me alone. No never alone. No never alone. He promised never to leave me, never to leave me alone.”

Today, as we gather and offer our prayers for one another, let us draw inspiration from these saints and martyrs: We’re all called to share our talents with others. But maybe one day some of us will be called to share our life, put our life on the line—like Martin Luther King, like Lorenzo Ruiz, like the thousands of monks and nuns and students in Myanmar. Sometimes sharing talent means sharing ourselves, our very lives. Should that moment come, the only way we can do this is faith that we are never alone—and for us Christians, it is because Jesus is always with us.

Postscript:  As of 29 September, the government in Myanmar has cut all Internet access, ransacked monasteries, and murdered monks.  Prayers. 

Photo credits: Martin Luther King & civil rights photos from www.mlkonline.net; Burmese monks photos from www.cnn.com; St. Lorenzo Ruiz portrait from www.library.thinkguest.org.